The voice cast has been announced for Bruce Timm’s upcoming animated series Batman: Caped Crusader, and Hamish Linklater (Midnight Mass) will voice Batman, taking over for late Batman: The Animated Series star Kevin Conroy.
You can hear a tease of Linklater’s performance in the casting announcement below video. As you’ll hear, its a Batman-sounding voice.
It was also revealed Christina Ricci has been cast as Selina Kyle / Catwoman, Jamie Chung is Dr. Harleen Quinzel / Harley Quinn, and former Batman voice actor Diedrich Bader is set to play Harvey Dent / Two-Face.
Other cast members include Minnie Driver, Eric Morgan Stuart, Michelle C. Bonilla, Krystal Joy Brown, John DiMaggio, McKenna Grace, Jason Watkins, Paul Scheer, Reid Scott, Gary Anthony Williams, Dan Donohue, David Krumholtz, Haley Joel Osment, and Toby Stephens.
While speaking to Vanity Fair, Timm said that Linklater’s take is one “no one has quite done for animation yet.” He said: “There were certain things that I had in my mind back in the early ’90s for the original Batman: The Animated Series that I didn’t get to do.
“I wanted to do this emotionally messed-up version of Batman, who’s extremely aloof and almost inhuman. [Bruce Wayne is] a persona that Batman himself has cultivated to throw people off of his scent.
“Deep down inside, he’s not a fun guy. He’s not charming, he’s not sexy, or anything like that. He’s devoted to warring on crime 24/7.
“Hamish was really the only one who nailed exactly what we were going for. We had a lot of people who were pretty good Batmans, but almost no good Bruces.”
Linklater’s added: “Bruce Wayne is the mask. He’s the secret identity. He’s the invention. Batman is the actual character, the actual guy. It’s set in the ’40s, [so I just thought of] how Batman would try to play himself off as a playboy socialite. I think I just tried to swing and swing and swing until I made contact with something.”
When talking about Ricci’s Catwoman, Timm said: “We wanted [Selina Kyle] to be not too dark and serious, as most Catwomans have been for the last 20 years or so. We wanted her to be…not ditzy, but just not serious.”
As for Two-Face, he said: “We thought, well, what if he starts off as kind of a schnook? And then when he gets his face disfigured, for the first time in his life he actually feels empathy for other people.”
When it comes to Harley Quinn, Timm shared: “We figured, as a psychiatrist, her clientele are some of the richest, most powerful men in Gotham City, and they dump all of their crap on her.
“It’s driving her crazy. She hears all this stuff, but because of psychiatrist-client privilege, she can’t do anything about it. She can’t tell anybody.
“We figured some of these guys have probably confessed some really horrible things to her, and she’s just like, ‘Well, I can’t just turn this guy loose out on the streets, but I can’t turn him into the cops either.”
The story summary reads: “Welcome to Gotham City, where the corrupt outnumber the good, criminals run rampant and law-abiding citizens live in a constant state of fear.
“Forged in the fire of tragedy, wealthy socialite Bruce Wayne becomes something both more and less than human—the BATMAN. His one-man crusade for justice attracts unexpected allies within the GCPD and City Hall, but his heroic actions spawn deadly, unforeseen ramifications.”
This animated series has been in development for some time with Timm, J.J. Abrams, Matt Reeves, and comic writer Ed Brubaker leading the charge.
Batman: Caped Crusader premieres this August 1 on Max.
